


Never Split the Party

by cyrene



Series: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Tabletop Gaming, Azula is her own warning, F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Never split the party is damn good advice, Zutara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 07:25:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15407955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene
Summary: "Suki is still doing her impression of Aang, and everyone is laughing. While he is distracted, Katara says, her voice as light and normal as she can make it, 'Zuko, can I talk to you for a second?'"OH, SNAP.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> OMG Y'ALL, HIIIIIII! This is relatively short time for me, though it took so long because someone actually guessed what I was planning on doing, and I had to decide how to proceed. Also, I was working on publishing a book on Amazon. But there is actual Zutara in this chapter, like really, so there's that.

 

 

 

Katara walks into her own house, which should be the safest place on earth, but Katara's past experience has informed her that this is not always the case. Right now, she is unsure of which way is up and which is down.

Her friends are laughing as they set up for their weekly game of Paragons of the Elements, passing out the character sheets and rolling dice to determine who has to do what. Katara zeroes in on one of them in particular.

He is handsome, despite the scarring on his perpetually serious face, and if Katara's heart were not already breaking it would be now. She brushes one finger lightly across her lips as she watches him laugh at something Suki says to Aang -- softly, lightly, like in her memory.

His golden eyes fix on her where she stands in the doorway, and he looks sad for a moment, and Katara finally, finally knows why.

Suki is still doing her impression of Aang, and everyone is laughing. While he is distracted, Katara says, her voice as light and normal as she can make it, "Zuko, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure," he says, breathless with laughter, standing up. And then he realizes what she just said, and he freezes, and those eyes are on her again.

Katara, tears forming in her eyes, turns and walks to her room, slamming the door behind her.

 

***

 

"What is she saying?" Aang whispers.

"Why was she so mad?" Sokka wants to know.

"Shh," Toph hisses. "Until the day I can genuinely experience life through vibrations in the ground, I have to be able to hear."

They all hush, because Toph has the best hearing out of all of them.

"Something about him being right... something about him lying... something about kissing... and the Sozins? What the hell is going on right now?" Toph's mouth is set with fear and confusion, and they're all dying to know what she's hearing.

Then the door opens, and they all fall back onto the ground -- which is probably what they deserve for eavesdropping in the first place. Lee stomps his way through them to the front door, Katara following him all the way, screaming, "This is not over, you know! You're going to have to explain yourself eventually, and -- GET BACK HERE!"

But he's beyond pissed and beyond listening as he jams on his helmet, starts his bike up and drives away. He doesn't even take the time to grab his backpack from beside the table.

They turn, as a group, to look at Katara, who puts a hand on her heart.

She says in a faint voice, "I may have made a mistake."

 

  
***

 

"Please, Katara?" Sokka begged. He had even gone down on his knees. "Please?" His eyes were large and full of fake tears. "Dad won't let me go with just Suki, he thinks --"

"And rightly so, whatever it is he thinks," Katara had replied tartly. "I'm surprised you and Suki want to go all the way to Fire Island just to --"

"HANG OUT!" Sokka shouted. "We want to take in the night life!"

"Oh, I bet," Katara rolled her eyes. "The night life on the inside of your tent, all alone."

But she had, for some reason, agreed to go. And she was, for some reason, pleased to learn that Sokka had also invited Lee. It would have been better, of course, if Aang and Toph were not too young and too sheltered to go with them, but this would be good.

Dad had gotten kind of cagey himself, once he realized she would probably end up spending most of her time with Lee, but a good twenty minute lecture on the hypocrisy of the Patriarchy and its impact on her psychological health shut him right up, even if it didn't quite take all the worry lines off his face.

So the four of them -- the Atwater kids, Suki, and Lee -- packed their bags and gathered their camping equipment and made the drive out to Fire Island. Katara's heart was shamefully aflutter as she listened to Lee argue with Sokka about navigation so they wouldn't get lost. Finally, unable to take any more, she forced Sokka to pull over and took over driving herself. This, unfortunately, left Sokka and Suki unsupervised in the back seat, which was the same as leaving Katara alone with Lee.

"Ugh, gross!" Katara groaned when she caught a glimpse in the rear-view mirror of her brother and his girlfriend sucking face.

"I'll drink to that," Lee muttered, his face the picture of disgust, and Katara couldn't help but laugh at the way his lip curled up. "Can't you two at least wait until we get there?"

"You're an enemy of love," Suki told Lee, not for the first time.

"Happily, if that's the alternative," he replied, and Katara laughed aloud again.

They arrived with just enough natural light left to set up their tents on the beach. Ostensibly the girls were sharing one and the boys the other. Katara and Suki went into their tent, where they changed into their nice clothes. The intention was to go to the Crystal Cave, the teen club. But Sokka took one look at Suki and his eyes became big, pumping hearts like he was in a cartoon.

"We'll meet you there," he assured Lee and Katara, dragging her into the boys' tent.

"Well, looks like I'm sleeping rough tonight," Lee said with that little lip curl, and Katara laughed.

"Don't worry," she assured him, "I'll have pity on you if you promise to be a gentleman."

The Crystal Cave was a beautiful building, all glowing and green. It was packed.

"You sure you're not tired from the drive?" Lee asked, eying the crowd with a wary distance.

"I'm a waterbender," Katara joked. "I get my power from the moon."

He nodded once, seemed to brace himself, and together they went in.

The DJ was playing one of Katara's favorite songs, and it was just starting. She grinned, looking around the dark room for the dance floor.

"Do you want a Coke?" he asked, gesturing towards the "bar".

"Shut up and dance with me," Katara said, just in time with the song. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him behind her all the way to the dance floor. It was fucking romantic, it was, and that was the moment that Katara realized she really, really wanted him to kiss her. She had never been the type to stand on ceremony, however, and it wasn't the 1800s, so she stood up on her toes and kissed him. It was barely a kiss, just a light brush of her lips -- a question and an invitation.

He started to kiss her back -- she knew, she knew, but then he pulled away.

"I can't," he said, and his eyes were full of regret. "I wish you knew..."

Katara shook her head. "I -- I'll be right back." She ran through the glowing green to the safety of the women's restroom.

They left that night, though it would take another day for him to understand why.

 

***

 

The next day is Saturday and, since they're all in town they set up game as usual. The next day is the first time she calls him by his name.

Katara, tears forming in her eyes, turns and walks to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Zuko, of course, follows her, because this cannot stand without an explanation.

"You lied to me," she screams as soon as he shuts the door. "You lied to all of us, but you lied to me!"

"How did you find out?" is the first thing he manages to say, and her watery blue eyes turn hard.

"I met your girlfriend --" she spits the word out like venom -- "on Fire Island. Is that why you wouldn't kiss me? Because you have a secret girlfriend, a whole secret life?"

"Girlfriend?" He mouths the word, unable to understand. The last time he had a girlfriend was -- "Mei?"

"Oh, nice to see you remember something," Katara says sarcastically. "You have no decency, no... no honor, Zuko Sozin!"

He pales when she says those words. He turns and walks away -- tripping over literally all his friends -- because she is right.

She's screaming, "This is not over, you know! You're going to have to explain yourself eventually, and -- GET BACK HERE!"

But he's beyond pissed and beyond listening as he jams on his helmet, starts his bike up and drives away.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWO chapters in ONE DAY?! I run the risk of actually finishing this bby!

 

 

 

"What the hell," Sokka says, turning to his sister, "just happened?"

He is all set to be angry with her, and that's when she starts bawling. Like baw-wit-da-bawling. Okay, so that was a bad joke, and at a totally inappropriate time, to boot, but Sokka is decidedly not comfortable with his little sister crying over anything, let alone a guy. A guy in their PotE game, one of Sokka's best friends.

"I... kissed... him." Kat snots all over a Kleenex. "I kissed him, and he's Zuko!"

She says this like it's a really big deal, and Sokka really wishes he knew what she meant so he could respond appropriately. Right now, all he's got is that his little sister kissed Lee, and something bad happened, which is making him feel kind of stabby.

"Sweetie..." Suki asks delicately. "what's a zuko?"

"That's his name," Katara sniffles. "Zuko Sozin."

They all look at each other in shock. Except for Toph, who still stares off in the distance at nothing, but her cloudy eyes definitely widen. They all know what a Sozin is.

"AND HIS GIRLFRIEND'S NAME IS MAI-AI-AI-AI!" Katara sobs, as if that's the important bit.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Sokka wants to know, and earns a smack from his girlfriend for it.

"Go make some tea," Suki tells him. She's using that really sexy bossy voice she gets. She did that one time in the bedroom and Sokka nearly -- "Tea!" Suki repeats, pointing him towards the kitchen and physically shoving Aang after him.

Once they're in the kitchen Sokka looks around, lost, like it's the first time he's been there.

"She likes Lee," Aang says, looking like he's about to start crying himself.

Isn't Aang, like, thirteen? Do thirteen year olds even like girls? Sokka just liked comic books when he was thirteen.

"What the hell is going on with this party?" Sokka wants to know.

Fifteen minutes later, he carries the cups in on a tray, one for each of them, and sets it down on the coffee table next to their dad's copy of "Hitting the Bottle: The Art of Bottling Model Boats" and one of Katara's school folders. Suki is crying now too, and Toph doesn't look far from it.

"What the hell is going on with this party?!" Sokka screeches, waving his arms in the air.

"You'd better tell him everything," Suki says, and Kat, who has calmed down a little at this point, nods.

"Okay," she says, in the sort of calm that only comes before the storm, gulping down tea, "it all started when I was eleven. Remember the night I came home late?"

 

***

 

Katara ran into the women's restroom, fighting tears.

"I am such an idiot," she said aloud, just to hear herself say it.

Of course he didn't like her. He was two years older than her, and really cool. He was a motorcycle and tattoos -- Katara was studying on the bus.

Katara took a deep breath, because goddamned if she was going to cry in the coolest nightclub she had ever been in. As she washed her hands, just to feel the cool water over her wrists, the door opened and someone else walked in. She was tall and beautiful -- no, really, she was tall and beautiful. She had long black hair, partly held up in two buns behind her head, and narrow eyes which fixed on Katara immediately. She was wearing a slinky maroon and black dress with a retro 50's vibe that clung to all kinds of things Katara didn't even have yet, and made Katara's blue and white skirt look less swishy and fresh, and more poofy and lame.

"Hey," the girl said in a flat, low tone. "Look, I don't know what you're doing here with Zuko, but the two of you need to leave immediately."

"I'm sorry," Katara replied politely, though the hairs on the back of her neck were starting to stand up, "but you must be mistaken. The only guys I'm here with are my brother Sokka, and Lee."

The girl laughed as dryly as she spoke. "Yeah, okay. Pretty sure I'd recognize Zuko Sozin anywhere, we dated long enough. You're here with him. Tell him Azula is here, and to get out while he can. If nothing else, I really don't want a family reunion ruining my vacation. Tell him he's got until tomorrow morning, and then I tell Azula I saw him. Tell him Mai sends her love," she said in a falsely bright voice, full of mocking. Then she flipped her long hair over her shoulder, turned, and left the restroom.

Katara could barely recognize her own face in the mirror. It felt like the floor was slipping out from underneath her. What was she going to do? Well, she reasoned, no matter who she was here with she didn't want to be any place Azula Sozin was -- that apple had not fallen far from the psychotic tree. So she went back to Lee -- Zuko? -- and told him she wasn't feeling well. Then she told Sokka she wasn't well and needed to go home. He was her brother so, after feeling her forehead and complaining a little, he rushed to pack up the car.

They went home.

The next day was Saturday and, since they were all in town, they planned to play PotE like normal. But Katara couldn't act normal. She had to know.

And, oh, did she find out.

 

***

 

Sokka sits, jaw hanging, as his sister finishes speaking. He doesn't know what to think, except --

"Well," he says, slapping his knees and standing up, "we're all going down to the Phoenix Diner right now."

"What?" Kat asks, looking more unfocused than he has ever seen her.

"I don't know a lot," Sokka admits, "but I know how to game. I know when a boss fight is coming. And I know you never, never not ever split the party. We need to go find Lee -- Zuko? Lee-ko? -- find this dude and talk to him and see what's up. So, everyone in the car, now."

"Ooh," Toph claps her hands with glee, "field trip!"

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

 

The secret to a perfect cup of tea is timing. You take the kettle off as soon as it starts to boil, let it cool off just enough, let the leaves steep for the correct amount of time, right down to the second. Iroh had learnt to make tea from his wife, a woman of far more patience and understanding than he could ever hope to have, himself, though he did endeavor every day to live in her example.

It is the quiet part of the day, after the lunch rush but before dinner, when his nephew's friends, all five of them, come bursting en masse into the Phoenix Diner. They startle him, and he drops the cup, shattering it on the brown tile at his feet.

"Where is Lee... Zu... your nephew?" Aang asks.

"If he even is your nephew," Sokka mutters darkly.

Iroh knows, without being told, that they know. He steps over the shards of his tea and locks the door, flipping off the sign that declares his business open.

"When is the last time you saw him?" he asks them, but he is really asking Katara, whose eyes are rimmed red, as though she's been crying recently.

"About a half hour ago," she says without a trace of tears. "We had a fight, and he left."

"Ah," Iroh says. He grabs the broom and the dust pan. "I'm afraid he is not here."

Katara takes a shaky breath. "I'm so stupid," she mutters. "I've ruined everything."

"He didn't tell any of us," Aang says, putting a comforting hand on her arm.

"Miss Katara," Iroh says gently, gently as his wife had ever taught him, as he begins to sweep up the dropped cup, "have you ever heard of kintsukuroi?"

"That's the gold leaf thing, right?" Aang asks with a contemplative frown.

Iroh smiles at the boy, whom he cannot help but like. "Just so, Aang. It is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold, and acknowledging that it is all the more beautiful for having been broken and repaired."

"That's nice, Gramps," says Toph impatiently, "but what does that have to do with Lee -- or Zuko?"

"He is a piece of broken pottery?" Aang asks, for all the world like a child being called upon in a class he hasn't studied for.

Iroh smiles again. "Right again, Aang. And you, his friends, are the gold."

"Oh, man," Katara says, putting her head in her hands. "I've really screwed up this time."

"Why don't we all sit down and have some tea," Iroh tells them, "and you can explain to me what's going on?"

 

***

 

Zuko rides around town for the better part of the afternoon, only stopping twice to hyperventilate and once to buy a bottle of water from a gas station, which he chugs on the premises.

They'll have to leave town. Uncle has spent so much time and money and effort building a life for them here, and stupid Zuko has ruined it, like usual. He really is such a waste of effort.

After a few hours, he has to admit that he's avoiding Uncle, avoiding leaving town, and he can't afford to do that any more. His Uncle has always protected him, and now it's his turn.

So Zuko makes a plan. He's going to pack his things and leave -- just get on his bike and ride away, he doesn't know where yet, because he's making this up as he goes along. What he does know is that Uncle Iroh deserves better than this.

When he gets to the diner, the sign is off. He's off his bike in an instant, but the door is locked when he pulls on it. Just as the panic begins to spike in his chest, Toph opens the door just a crack.

"Password?" she asks in a hard voice.

"It's... it's me."

Her eyes widen underneath her thick black bangs. "OHMYGOD, Chris Pratt?!"

Zuko's face turns red, and -- "Wha -- no!" He stops, and thinks. "Yeah, sure, why not?"

Toph, cackling with laughter, opens the door wider. "Come in, idiot. Your uncle has been worried sick."

Zuko walks into the Phoenix Diner, and everything seems to be going in slow motion as his brain tries to catch up with what's happening to him. They're all there -- Uncle Iroh, Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph, and her, Katara, standing up from the back booth where they've all been laughing over something that he can't understand. How can they be laughing right now, while the world is falling apart around him?

His eyes, as ever, zero in on her. Her gray-blue eyes crinkle, and her mouth expands into a wide smile. Her hand comes up in a little wave. She mouths his name.

"Zuko."

Her lips purse on the vowels, and he remembers what it feels like to be allowed to kiss her.

"What's going on here?" he asks, incredulous.

"Don't you know better than to split the party?" Aang asks with a laugh. He's sitting on the top of the booth instead of the chair, his feet perpetually avoiding the ground.

"I don't understand," he admits, looking around him at the people who make his chest ache in a way he doesn't have the words for yet.

"We were broken," Katara says, taking his hand, "and now we're whole. Now we're gold."

 

 

 


End file.
